It might seem somewhat incongruous to go to a concert featuring wintry music at the beginning of summer. No matter. This is an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed, since it is German baritone Matthias Goerne singing “Winterreise” (“Winter Journey”), Franz Schubert’s famous song cycle about the despair of lost love.
Goerne is considered today’s foremost proponent of German “lieder,” or art songs — particularly those of Schubert. Goerne has devoted much of his life’s work to them as a performer and teacher.
He sees these songs, with their emotions directly expressed in the lyrics and music, as essential to understanding Schubert, one of the greatest and most prolific 19th-century European composers.
“When I was very young, I became interested in this idea that music becomes concrete by the words,” Goerne said, on the phone from L.A. “The music, by itself, can be beautiful, but this kind of exact meaning, the exact direction, it makes it very special to have this kind of unification.
“Both (words and music) become more powerful because of each other. And that’s why I discovered Schubert.”
Goerne recorded 12 albums of Schubert’s lieder in a six-year project that involved working with some of the world’s finest pianists and won widespread acclaim. He called it “a very deep experience.”
“When you have a look at everything, you discover there is no song existing that is not really good,” he said. “This is so astonishing.”
He recorded “Winterreise,” a series of 24 songs, in 2013 and has frequently toured with it ever since. Performances have often been accompanied by animations and images created by William Kentridge, a South African artist who was inspired by the powerful emotion Schubert expressed.
It is not an uncommon reaction for listeners to be notably moved by “Winterreise,” which as a song cycle is considered the greatest work of its kind.
GOERNE, 52, first heard “Winterreise” as a child in his hometown of Weimar, then part of East Germany, after his parents brought home a nearly 30-year-old recording made shortly after World War II.
The song cycle continued to interest him as he went on to study with influential teachers in Germany, including Hans-Joachim Beyer and the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Goerne learned that the popularity of the work crossed many borders.
“When I started to sing this in concert, I discovered also that the success is not in connection with the German-speaking countries,” Goerne said. “You have the same amount of interest in Italy and France, Japan and England.”
Goerne’s longtime associate Alexander Schmalcz performs with him here, and the concert will include lyrics projected on stage for the audience to follow.
Taken from poetry written by Wilhelm Mueller, the songs tell of wrenching loss, anguish and overwhelming sorrow, as a traveler trudges through a wintry landscape, with everything he experiences reminding him of his heartbreak — a creaking weathervane that seems to be mocking him, the horn of the postman telling him there’s no mail for him, a crow ready to devour his frozen body.
“This is so personal,” Goerne said. “All the fears, the longings, all the emotions we know because of life and what we experience, what is coming in the future and what is in the past, this is all represented there.
“The individual, human being is absolutely the center for 24 songs, and that is very touching.”
Even for Goerne, who has performed the work “probably 200 times,” it is an emotional experience, he said. “You discover after so many experiences, there is still something new to work out, something new will come to my mind, because of a key word in a sentence, and this is so challenging.”
“WINTERREISE” (“WINTER JOURNEY”)
Featuring Matthias Goerne, baritone, and Alexander Schmalcz, piano
>> Where: Orvis Auditorium
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $20-$45
>> Info: honoluluchambermusicseries.org
